In almost all fuel injectors, fuel spray to the combustion chamber is initiated by the movement of a nozzle valve member along a vertical centerline to open the nozzle outlet. When the desired amount of fuel has been injected, the nozzle valve member returns to its biased position, closing the nozzle outlet and ending fuel spray. The force that moves the nozzle valve member to open and close the nozzle outlet may be hydraulic, mechanical, or a combination of the these forces. While these nozzle valve members have performed adequately, there is room for improvement of nozzle valve members.
Specifically, engineers are always searching for ways to improve fuel injector performance and to reduce the likelihood that internal fuel injector components will fail. For instance, in the fuel injectors discussed above, there is a possibility for the injector tip to fail due to impact of the nozzle valve member with the injector body. While the probability of such an event is low, if an injector tip fails, the metal fragments can destroy an entire engine. Therefore, it would be desirable to develop a nozzle valve member that performed as well or better than previous nozzle valve members, while opening and closing the nozzle outlet in a without significantly impacting the injector tip.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.